I actually made the earrings before I read Sarah T.'s how-to (might even have been before it was posted), but it's the same method and her how-to is excellent, there's no reason to make a new one ;)
I made the "feathers" out of polymer clay because I couldn't find any reasonably priced ones in stores, and the ones I found on the internet had shipping costs that exceeded their value by at least 500%